


Christmas Coffee

by prioriincantatum



Category: Supernatural
Genre: Cas in sweaters, Castiel in the Bunker, Christmas, Fluff, Human Castiel, M/M, Mild Language, One Shot, Shmoop, but probably safe for all ages, early season nine, i'm feeling nostalgic
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-05-24
Updated: 2014-05-24
Packaged: 2018-01-26 08:49:03
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,439
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1682237
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/prioriincantatum/pseuds/prioriincantatum
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>It's Christmas time in the bunker. Castiel gets to spend his first Christmas with the Winchesters and Kevin and he learns why mistletoe is an important Christmas tradition.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Christmas Coffee

**Author's Note:**

> In my mind, all is well, Cas is happily in the bunker with Sam and Dean and Kevin and Gadreel didn’t fuck shit up. And Cas is still human because that was a brief and beautiful thing. ; A; allow me my delusions. Also, this was written for a Christmas gift exchange on tumblr, and I just remembered it so I'm posting it for nostalgias sake.

“What the hell, Dean? Did you just raid Goodwill for the ugliest sweaters on the face of the planet?” Kevin groaned in fake anger as he unwrapped his own special ugly Christmas sweater from Dean. It was actually quite a nice red and white sweater, until you saw that the three white deer on the front were having their own holiday ménage a trois.

“You’re welcome, special K.” Dean winked over his cracked coffee mug.  He had gone for his favorite cup but it was already sitting in the sink, used, with a dozen other mugs. Since Cas had been staying with them for the holidays (much to Ezekiel’s dismay – though Dean told him to “fuck off, it’s Christmas”, and that seemed to get the message across) he had been trying to acclimate himself to their lifestyle and he had yet to understand the fact that he could drink out of something other than mugs and that he didn’t need a new mug with every refill or drink change. Especially when he’d already broken two mugs and chipped Dean’s favorite Batman mug.

“Oh, that’s nice Dean. Real classy. Almost beats mine.” Sam rolled his eyes while waving his hand over the bells ringing off of his Rudolph sweater. Despite the fact that Sam was groaning over it, Dean knew he appreciated the sentiment and the time they were spending together. 

“Aw, you know you love it.” Dean chugged the rest of his coffee, smiling over it as he heard Sam’s groan.

“Jerk.”

“Now come on Bitch, it’s Christmas.” Kevin just chuckled at the two as he crumpled up his wrapping paper and tossed it in the heaping pile of boxes and wrapping paper and ribbon near the table.

“Is that really necessary?” Cas raised his eyebrows at the pair in quiet questioning.

“Of course, Cas. Now open your gift.” Dean smiled at the man on the ground, cross-legged and covered in bows and ribbons, discarded from Dean’s presents. He’d managed to convince him that it was tradition for someone to be picked as Santa and that person was to be covered in ribbons and bows leftover from wrapping. Dean wasn’t entirely sure how long it had taken for Castiel to realize he was merely toying with the man, but he was at least humoring Dean now.

Cas delicately tore at the wrapping, as if savoring every moment of this very first and very special Christmas of his. It agitated Dean to no end when Sam used to do that (though his shaggy-haired brother ripped at gifts with a bit more ferocity now) but something about the way that Cas did it was just so endearing.

Out of the corner of his eye, the elder Winchester noticed the younger giving him that strange look he’d seen on him lately. It wasn’t a bitchface, it was softer than that; it was intrigued and _happy_. Dean wasn’t entirely sure why that was, but he wasn’t about to sit around the fire with hot chocolate and share his feelings with his little brother. They didn’t even have a fire.

“Oh.” Cas gasped in surprise as he pulled out an “ugly” sweater of his own. Knowing him, he’d wear whatever Dean got him, so he’d managed to find an _okay_ one for him. At least one he wouldn’t mind Cas wearing in public with him. There was large mistletoe emblazoned on the front, but the classic red, white, and green stitched color scheme on the sweater itself was really, really classic.

“Why doesn’t he have humping reindeer on his sweater?” Kevin groaned again before digging into his stocking for another candy bar.

In an effort to make this a real Christmas in their home, Dean had gone out and bought stockings for everyone (even Charlie in case she came back, but she was still off in Oz so he left it in the storage box to later put the decorations up in) and stuffed them with candy and chocolate over night and demanded everyone get some gifts, even if they were wrapped for themselves.

“Why is there mistletoe on it? I’ve never understood the mistletoe tradition and it’s association with Christmas.” Cas questioned quietly before adding the wrappings to the trash pile and placing the folded sweater in his lap. He ran his fingers over the fabric, as though it were something precious. It was just a sweater.

“Well, back in the olden days, people used to have large parties around Christmas. Like, most of the town would be at their mansion of a house.” Kevin began, pausing to pull on his admittedly horrendous sweater, causing Dean to smirk.

“It was a custom to put the mistletoe over the door to greet their guests and any single woman who spent too much time under the mistletoe was basically fair game.” Sam added, sipping from his coffee mug as he finished.

“Yeah, basically any guy could come up and kiss her. Now it’s just a leftover tradition to kiss under the mistletoe. It’s another symbol for Christmas.” Kevin finished the explanation with a sigh; a small smile crept to his lips as he thumbed through the novels that Sam had gotten him. He wouldn’t be reading them any time soon, but it was a nice sentiment nevertheless.

“Like the tree.” Dean said with a firm nod, looking at Cas on the ground. His eyes met Dean’s and he saw something there – but couldn’t quite decipher what it was, because really, he wasn’t about to go there.

There was something odd about having him there, and talking about kissing under the mistletoe. It wasn’t that it was too homey or too simple, because for the love of all that was pie, it was more than welcomed with all the craziness they’d been dealing with lately. But the fact that he was _human_ , more than he’d ever been and literally without mojo or wings, it seemed different. He still looked to Dean with that sort of mystical reverence that promised that they still had that “profound bound”.

Back in the kitchen, Dean went to immediately turn on the stove and set the milk and cocoa to simmer. It was inevitable that the three nerdy musketeers would want some hot chocolate too, after knowing he was making some for himself, so he was being preemptive.

“Dean?”

He turned towards the doorway to find Cas, walking in, sweater and small wrapped gift in hand.

“Yeah, Cas?” Dean’s eyes turned back to the stove to watch the pot. He was particular about his kitchen and _especially_ his pots and pans. They were Circulon, dammit. He didn’t want to scorch the hot chocolate or damage the pan. While he was watching the pan, Cas had crossed the kitchen to lean on the counter next to Dean.

“Thank you.”

Dean sort of side-eyed him, assuming it was over the sweater. “It’s nothin’, man.”

“No, it isn’t." Cas’ voice was firm. The sudden shift was so startling to Dean that he _had_ to look at him now. “You told me to leave, Dean. But you let me come back.” Cas’ fingers carded through the sweater, thumbs running over the mistletoe pattern. “I imagine that was… difficult for you.” Dean forced a small smile at him.

“Not really.” Cas’ eyebrows quirked at the response and they just stared at each other for a moment. Damn, Dean missed this. There was no way he would admit that out loud, but something about it made him feel special. Cas stared at him like everything he did was magnificent and that he was actually worth something, that he was someone _worth_ saving. It was just hard to believe that this person in front of him was the creature that had saved him from hell, and now here he was, completely human, petting an ugly Christmas sweater while Dean made hot chocolate.

Dean chuckled a little and shook his head before reaching for a wooden spoon to stir the hot chocolate.

“What is it Dean?” Cas asked, shuffling around behind Dean while he stirred.

“Nothin’, it’s just… funny. Seein’ you here.” Dean smiled a little to himself. “Not in a bad way. I mean, I wish I’d never told you to leave in the first place, but –“ He stopped stirring. Had he really just said that out loud? It was unnerving that he had given that away. He had to keep Zeke a secret until Sam was all better – Cas just _couldn’t_ know yet. No one could know what he’d done until it was done.

“Then why did you?” Cas asked quietly as he stepped into Dean’s personal bubble.

Geez, even that felt good. It was comforting to have the quirky, once-angel getting all together too close for comfort and ignoring social boundaries entirely.

“Actually, I don’t want to know. Right?” Cas gave a meek smile to him, his eyes breaking from Dean’s to peer down at the bubbling concoction. “What is that, exactly?” He started to lean over the pot, obviously sniffing it. Dean smiled.

“It’s hot chocolate. Think of it as our Christmas Coffee.” His mother would make it a lot around Christmas because it was so cold in Lawrence, but it was just an easy way it explain it to Cas, like he was a child.

“Funny thing about coffee of all kinds…” He reached across the counter for the small package he’d brought in and handed it to Dean. It was poorly wrapped, just like every other gift Cas had given to them. “Well, I suppose there’s nothing really funny for me to say at all. I just needed a logical segue.”

“Dude, you never need a segue for presents.” Dean smiled, taking the small gift and ignoring the brush of lightening trailing up from where his fingertips brushed Cas’ hands.

He made quick work of the wrapping job, tearing off the paper with the finesse of a small child. Beneath the ribbon, tape, and paper was a clean black mug, with the yellow batman logo on the side. Deans smile only grew as Cas spoke.

“And I promise I won’t use this one. That way you always have a mug in the mornings.” Dean couldn’t help but chuckle at the addendum. He was missing the point, but that hardly surprised dean.

“Thanks, Cas. But you know, you could also just use _one_ mug, then it wouldn’t be a problem.” He gave Cas a quick wink before swiping one of the mugs from the sink and quickly cleaning it out before pouring the hot chocolate into it and the new batman mug. With a handful of marshmallows split between the two mugs and a quick spurt of whip cream on top, it was perfect. He handed Cas the other mug before taking a sip of his own.

“I swear this stuff is liquid sex.” Dean murmured, wiping the whip cream off his face.

“I’m afraid this drink has no relation to sex, Dean. And though this is delicious, sex was significantly more enjoyable.” Dean chuckled into the mug.

“I was just sayin’ that it’s good, Cas.” It wasn’t worth it to explain the meaning to Cas and waste the little time they had. He’d much rather just stand there, enjoying this time with him. And they did just that for a little while, until Cas broke the silence.

“Dean?” Dean gave a muffled “mmhmm” in response, not taking his eyes from the hot chocolate in front of him. He’d already refilled his mug, and was sure to do it a last time before returning to the living room for a post-Christmas nap.

His brows quirked up as he felt something set on top of his head, eyes tilting up to try and see it in the suddenly dark space.

“Does this count?”

Cas was suddenly much closer, his voice with a deeper, darker rumble than Dean typically heard. He’d placed the mistletoe sweater over their heads and was staring at Dean in question, a small tilt to his head and hint of a smile to his lips.

Slowly but surely, understanding flushed over Dean along with the faintest blush that he hoped wasn’t visible under the oversized sweater. Was Cas asking what he thought he was asking? There was only one obvious meaning that he could have, and Dean just didn’t know how to process it. Cas seemed to think that was automatically a no though, and reached for the sweater that had sunk over their faces. Dean reached for his wrist a little too quickly, and a little too harshly, but he loosened his grip as soon as he realized what he’d done.

They just stood there in the darkened space, hot chocolate making the air smell rich and thick, but more than anything, Dean smelled Cas. There was the chocolate, sure, but he was practically breathing him in from this distance, a soapy, fresh scent from his shower, lingering under his natural earthy smell.

Before he knew what he was doing, Dean was leaning in, pressing his lips to Cas’. And before that even registered in his mind, he was sliding his tongue in, tasting whip cream off his lips as he explored. The spark from the touch was _nothing_ next to this. This was lightening and fire and like being shot – all in the best way. The spark and flames warmed Dean to his very core, especially with how he loosened his grip on Cas wrist until it was wrapped around the back of Cas’ hand, squeezing lightly while his other hand found it’s way onto Cas’ hip. Meanwhile, Cas’ fingers were carding through the fine hairs at the back of Dean’s neck, causing a light shiver to run down his spine. His chest was tightening, painful experiences coming to mind, though this definitely wasn’t painful.

When they finally parted, they didn’t move too far. Hands pressed, foreheads together, breathing each other’s air, this was contentment. When Dean locked eyes with him, he noticed that Dean’s eyes were half-lidded, crinkles appearing at the side, showing how pleased he was with the turn of events. Dean couldn’t imagine he looked much different.

“That was… nice.” Dean chuckled at Cas as he pressed a small kiss to his lips. He couldn’t really disagree with him, but the word didn’t seem to give the moment justice.

“Yeah, just wait until New Years.” Cas quirked a confused eyebrow, but Dean couldn’t really comment over the sound of a clearing throat, coming from across the kitchen. Sam’s voice was quick to follow.

“If you’re not busy, I’d really like to grab some of that hot chocolate.”


End file.
